Big Indiana Bass

A Crappie OTC Primer: In-Fisherman

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I thoroughly enjoy catching structurally related open water crappie. In my opinion, the best way to become a good open water/deep water bass angler is to first learn how to be a good open water/ deep water crappie angler. If you can do one, then the other is a piece of cake, as they say. You've heard me term my style of fishing this way as "Crappie OTC", which simply means crappie on-the-cast. While it sounds like a very simple, no-brainer way of catching crappie, it is actually much more involved than most realize. I've been promising an article for a while now, and am happy to say that that is now a reality.

I've had the pleasure of working again with Ned Kehde, In-Fisherman field editor, to capture all the basic details of this method, covering everything from tackle to electronics. There is still a whole second chapter that could be added at some point in the future concerning all the little intricacies and such of the technique, but this (very long) article should give you a thorough primer to get started. You can find the article on the In-Fisherman website at the link below. At some point I'll add a copy to the articles section of BIB for future reference.

One last comment - don't let the title fool you. This is a year round approach that works in both warm as well as cold water. The only differences are in the movements and holding areas of the crappie throughout the season.

The art and science of catching cold-water crappie

More Weekend Wrapup "Stuff"

I'm not a tackle minimalist, but I did a pretty darn good job of checking out 2 stores and 1 fishing show this weekend and walking out of all 3 with less than $60 in combined purchases. Here are a few other things I picked up in the last week that I'll be reporting on in the future, as well as related site news.

• I grabbed 2 packs of Gambler Shakey Shads that I plan on testing as part of my "Midwest Finesse" repertoire once the water warms and the sissy jig bite goes away.
• Beside the Megabass knockoff, I also bought one of the new RC2 Luck E Strike squarebills to test. Price was $6.99 and they are all made as silent runners.
• I now own a Lucky Craft Kelly J prop bait that I'll be reporting on later this spring when that bite comes around.
• Received my 6# and 10# spools of Sufix 832 line in neon lime. I'm really anxious to test this line out, and will be dishing out some thoughts after a couple good workouts. The 6# should get a lot of crappie and sissy jig work, and the 10# will be for shaky head fishing.
• Speaking of crappie, I added quite a few new crappie baits to the arsenal. It had been a while since I last added to that box, but I plan on playing with them more this year than I did last. A lot of guys have asked me about how I fish for crappie, what I refer to as 'OTC'-style. A detailed article is coming very soon in that regard. Also reorganized the crappie tackle box this weekend. I'll probably post pics at some point when I get things finalized.
• One more note related to crappie fishing. I bought a spool of 4# Berkley Sensation in 'blaze orange'. Hope it works as good as it looks :) From my testing, Sensation has the least amount of stretch compared to any other mono/copoly or fluoro line that I have tested.
• Spoke with IBF tourney director Kenny Swint at The Outdoorsman show on Saturday, and plans are for a lot more coverage of Federation Invitational events and anglers on this site in 2012. If all goes as discussed, you'll get postings of all tourney results rapidly on the site, hopefully including all the top-8 regional stuff that usually never gets covered. Once info starts rolling in, we'll probably deidicate an entire page to just IBF stuff so it will be easy for anglers to find and keep updated. Also planning interiew features with the Angler & Co-Angler of the Year winners, along with the IBF Classic winner.
• Back on tackle items, I now have my new Rapala digital touch screen weigh scale in hand. I've already been playing with it, figuring out all the features by weighing my rods. Do you know how much your rods weigh? You'll be hearing lots more about this little dude in 2012 on the site.
• Also got my hands on the new Little Pek-R Finesse Jigheads from Rod Yoder and RedShad Tackle. We'll see what we can do with those this spring.
• Lastly, I plan on doing a little bit of 'old school' fishing in 2012, going back to my roots. I've got a pair of 10' poles for panfish dipping and small pond live bait fishing. A lot more than meets the eye here, some of which I plan to cover on the site if I actually take the time to set down the bass poles for a minute. I started out fishing when I was just a little kid on the banks of Eagle Creek as well as the local creeks (more like large drainage ditches) using a cane pole and bobber, and thought it might be fun to revisit those roots, only with modern tackle and techniques. I'm even thinking about holding a 'learn to fish' day for kids and parents locally to introduce them to the simplicity of fishing (and especially catching). I've seen way too many instances of kids out fishing the past few years (both alone and with parents) and simply not catching anything, largely because of poor setup and lack of knowledge. It's good to reflect and revisit "where ya' came from" every once in a while, and we definitely need to get kids more interested in fishing and the outdoors in general these days..

White River’s rebound continues after 1999 fish kill

The White River has received its cleanest bill of health since a major fish kill in 1999.

During a fall 2011 fish survey, Indiana Department of Natural Resources biologists collected 7,128 fish from 57 species at sample stations between Anderson and Indianapolis. This was the greatest number of species collected since the fish kill, and further proof that the river has recovered.

In December 1999, an estimated 4.3 million fish died as a result of a fish kill that started at the outfall of the Anderson Waste Water Treatment Plant and stretched 55 miles into downtown Indianapolis. The kill was traced to an industrial discharge from the Guide Corporation in Anderson.

A $6 million settlement overseen by the DNR, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was used to restore the river. A 10-person citizen’s advisory committee assisted the agencies.

“The fish community is healthy and an increase in darters and minnows is an indication of improving habitat and water quality” said Sandra Clark-Kolaks, a DNR fisheries research biologist.

Game species have also recovered since 1999, providing ample angling opportunities. Black bass, rock bass, saugers, crappies, and channel catfish were collected in plentiful numbers.

A total of 154 smallmouth bass ranging from 2.6 to 19.9 inches long were collected, and the number of smallmouth bass greater than 17 inches increased since 2007. A total of 223 largemouth bass ranging from 2.3 to 17.4 inches long were collected.

Of the 186 channel catfish collected 31 percent were longer than 14 inches and 19 percent were longer than 20 inches, with most being collected in the Lake Indy pool. Crappies were most prominent in backwater areas with several black crappies in the 10-to-12-inches size range. Six saugers were collected in the Landings Pit area and ranged in size from 17.5 to 21 inches.

In addition to fish, the White River is home to an abundance of other wildlife. During the fish survey, biologists noted bald eagles, great blue herons, foxes, and white-tailed deer.

“Thanks to fish stockings, monitoring, habitat protection, public access improvements and public awareness, the White River is an excellent recreational opportunity for Indianapolis residents,” said Bill James, DNR chief of fisheries.

James says groups like Friends of the White River and the White River Watchers have also had a major impact on the White River by organizing annual trash cleanups and improving public access.

A list of DNR-managed fishing access sites can be found at the DNR “Where to Fish” finder at http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3591.htm

A copy of the 2011 White River fish survey report will soon be posted to http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3352.htm

2011 Midwestern States Bass/Panfish Research Updates - Part II

MISSOURI

Smallmouth Bass Management 2011 Executive Summary

In 2009, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) released two, key smallmouth bass reports, compiling the detailed history of regulations, evaluations and management of this keystone aquatic species in Missouri. To date, there is a total of 358 miles of water on 12 streams with Stream Black Bass Special Managements Areas (SBBSMA) that differ from the statewide regulations. In an effort to expand on information supplied in these reports and the decades of smallmouth bass management in Missouri, in 2010, smallmouth bass managers and researchers were assigned to five committees to further refine future management direction. The following are the brief results, updated progress and planned work by the Smallmouth Bass Work Group and these five committees.

1) Smallmouth Bass Angler Survey Committee

Obtaining information from anglers was a consensus top priority and, although many methods of retrieving this data were discussed, an angler mail survey was chosen. To maximize value, the survey targeted smallmouth bass and rock bass (goggle-eye) anglers to gain valuable information regarding future management of both species. In October of 2010, 100,000 Missouri resident fishing license holders received a screener card, simply asking if they were a smallmouth bass or rock bass angler. If an angler responded yes about fishing for either species, they were mailed the full survey. The survey mailings were stratified toward anglers in southern Missouri while also surveying a representative group of statewide anglers.

2) Smallmouth Bass Stream Evaluation Criteria Committee

This committee was primarily assigned to evaluate and update the criteria used when the 12 SBBSMA areas were created. The following are four key areas of biological evaluation that would need to be addressed, along with social factors before any additional management areas would be considered and/or proposed:

• Are there electrofishing mortality concerns for Species of Conservation Concern or other species evaluation conflicts?
• Are the stream gradient, maximum summer temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, riparian corridor width and watershed health appropriate?
• Are the field habitat observations and fish population indices appropriate?
• Does the outcome of fish population modeling indicate a positive outcome?

3) Smallmouth Bass Research Needs Committee

Two management/evaluation projects have been initiated from recommendations presented by this committee.

a) Identification of smallmouth bass exploitation rates in selected streams – Knowing angler harvest rate is an important part of evaluating the status of smallmouth bass populations, we tagged 1,420 legal sized (12-inch minimum) smallmouth bass in five rivers (Black, Castor, Courtois, Current and North Fork of the White) with angler reward tags in 2011 and plan to repeat in 2012, pending data review and budget approval. Selection of river reach was diversified to include sections considered to be accessible by wade, float or boat fishing. Also, rivers selected are being managed with statewide regulations with no increase in minimum length limits or reduced daily limits.

b) Seasonal movement of smallmouth bass in relation to spring influences in Missouri Ozark streams - MDC is partnering with the National Park Service in 2011 to track smallmouth bass movements within the Current River while concurrently monitoring water temperatures within and adjacent to spring habitats. This information will provide baseline data on water temperatures in and adjacent to springs and provide information on fish movements within the river and spring systems that can be used in the future to evaluate the effects of climate change on the park’s aquatic resources.

4) Smallmouth Bass Sampling Protocol Committee

This committee revised the smallmouth bass sampling guidelines and developed project proposals to aid in the electrofishing efficiency of these guidelines. The updated guidelines are also intended do the following:

1) give MDC the ability to more effectively summarize black bass and goggle-eye data collected by different biologists on different streams at different times;

2) make it easier to detect significant changes in a fish population over time; and

3) help MDC evaluate future management decisions. These guidelines should be used regardless of whether or not the site is within a SBBSMA or part of a special regulation proposal. Detail and updates on these efforts should be completed in 2012.

5) Smallmouth Bass Stream Habitat Committee

The goal of this committee is to use previously collected smallmouth bass sample data and GIS watershed characteristics to define watershed conditions that are associated with various degrees of a stream’s potential to support smallmouth bass. The assumption here is that different watershed characteristics (e.g., geology, land use, riparian, springs, etc.) will be associated with a stream’s potential to support smallmouth bass. Modeling the five valuable criteria of a smallmouth bass habitat model (stream gradient, maximum water temperature, dissolved oxygen, riparian corridor width and watershed impervious surface), should produce an effective and informative tool for biologists. Modeling will be done one watershed at a time, starting with selected pilot watersheds.

NEBRASKA

Statewide Panfish and Largemouth Bass Regulation Changes for 2011

The statewide harvest regulations for panfish and largemouth bass were simplified during 2011. The catch-and-release regulation for all largemouth bass at fisheries designated as “high-use areas” was changed to 21” minimum length limit and 1 daily bag limit. The statewide length limit remains a 15” minimum. Prior to the regulation change, there were two panfish regulations in place. At high-use areas, the daily bag limit was 10 fish in any combination while the statewide regulation was 30 fish per species. These two limits were combined into a statewide limit of 15 panfish in any combination. The use of length limits to manage bluegill (8” minimum) and crappie (10” minimum) populations was also eliminated on many waters throughout the state.

Priority effects among young-of-the-year fish: reduced growth of bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) caused by yellow perch (Perca flavescens)?

When available, Daphnia spp. are often preferred by age-0 yellow perch and bluegill sunfish because of energetic profitability. We hypothesised that predation by age-0 yellow perch could lead to a midsummer decline (MSD) of Daphnia spp. and that priority effects may favor yellow perch because they hatch before bluegill, allowing them to capitalize on Daphnia spp. prior to bluegill emergence. Data were collected from 2004-2010 in Pelican Lake, Nebraska, USA. The lake experienced a prolonged MSD in all but one year (2005), generally occurring within the first two weeks of June except in 2008 and 2010 when it occurred at the end of June. MSD timing is not solely related to seasonal patterns of age-0 yellow perch consumption. Nevertheless, when Daphnia spp. biomass was low during 2004 and 2006-2010 (< 4 mg wet weight L-1), predation by age- 0 yellow perch seems to have suppressed Daphnia spp. biomass (i.e., < 1.0 mg wet weight L-1). The exception was 2005 when age-0 yellow perch were absent. Growth of age-0 bluegill was significantly faster in 2005, when Daphnia spp. were available in greater densities (> 4 mg wet weight L-1) compared to the other years (< 0.2 mg wet weight L-1). We conclude that age-0 yellow perch are capable of reducing Daphnia biomass prior to the arrival of age-0 bluegill, ultimately slowing bluegill growth. Thus, priority effects favor age-0 yellow perch when competing with age-0 bluegill for Daphnia. However, these effects may be minimized if there is a shorter time between hatching of the two species, higher Daphnia spp. densities or lower age-0 yellow perch densities.

Kaemingk, M.A., J.C. Jolley, D.W. Willis, and S.R. Chipps. In revision. Priority effects among young-of-the-year fish: reduced growth of bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) caused by yellow perch (Perca flavescens)? Freshwater Biology.

 

WISCONSIN

Black bass

Much of the recent discussion surrounding black bass management in Wisconsin has focused on an apparent increase in bass densities, particularly Largemouth Bass in the Northwest part of the state. Concerns are being raised as to the implications of the increases which include reduced growth rates and substantive community interactions, particularly negative effects on walleye populations. The cause of the increases in bass abundances is unknown however many have been suggested including climate change, overly restrictive regulations, fluctuations in water levels, increased water clarity and changes in angler dynamics. An experimental suite of regulations and walleye stocking have been implemented on 20 waters in northern Wisconsin with the general goal of reducing bass abundance and increasing walleye abundance. AJ Repp (Masters student, UW-Stevens Point) is close to completing his thesis where he has analyzed a WDNR long-term dataset and found a negative correlation between various Largemouth Bass and Walleye population parameters. Further research at UW-Stevens Point and UW-Madison will focus on quantifying the magnitude of changes in Black Bass and walleye populations and modeling potential cause and effect pathways between the most probable variables involved in the interaction. Additionally, research and data analyses being conducted by WDNR staff and UW-Stevens Point researchers will focus on determining the effectiveness of regulations in altering black bass populations.

Panfish

A review of potential changes to the panfish regulation options in Wisconsin is being discussed as part of a larger statewide effort to evaluate the role of all sportfish regulations in the state. Kyle Mosel (Masters student, UW-Stevens Point) is nearing completion of his thesis in which he simulated the effectiveness of various black crappie and yellow perch regulations. His results indicate that a drastic reduction in bag limit would be necessary to reduce harvest enough to realize population level changes.

2011 Midwestern States Bass/Panfish Research Updates - Part I

SOUTH DAKOTA

Crappie removal project

Lake Marindahl is a 139 acre small impoundment in Yankton County, South Dakota. Game Fish and Parks survey the fish populations every other year. Black crappies are the most abundant species in the lake. Crappie size has been a problem with few fish reaching desirable keeper size for anglers. Growth is slightly slower than the small lakes and impoundments mean. Mortality is very high with only 176 age-4 fish out of 1,474 sampled from 2007, 2009, and 2011 surveys. Lake Marindahl was used as a source of black crappies for stocking other lakes.

Growth was monitored during the bi-annual lake surveys to see if the removal had an effect on crappie size. The increased mean length in 2011 is due to a large year class of age-3 fish and very few younger fish. The maximum length did not increase. Anglers in 2011 have commented on the seemingly larger crappies they are catching. The number removed may not have been enough to affect growth.

Smallmouth bass and yellow perch interactions project

Researchers from South Dakota State University are working in conjunction with Game, Fish and Parks biologists to examine potential interactions between smallmouth bass and juvenile yellow perch in northeastern South Dakota glacial lakes. Specifically, we are interested in evaluating the potential for smallmouth bass to act as an additional constraint to age-0 yellow perch recruitment. The research will involve estimation of smallmouth bass population size, smallmouth bass food habits, and age-0 yellow perch abundance. Bioenergetics models will be used to estimate the proportion of the yellow perch population consumed by smallmouth bass during the growing season. This research is slated to begin on Pickerel Lake (Day County) spring 2012 and Clear Lake (Marshall County) spring 2013.

NORTH DAKOTA

A tagging project was initiated the spring of 2011 on Pipestem Reservoir located near the city of Jamestown, North Dakota. During a four day period in late May, 1278 black and 11 white crappie were captured and tagged with Floy dangler tags. Lengths to the nearest cm and sex were recorded. Short-term objectives were to obtain a population estimate, and estimate angler exploitation. Tagged crappie ranged in length from 200-340mm, averaging 230mm. The male to female ratio was approximately 40/60. Standard adult population surveys conducted at Pipestem Reservoir over the last 20 years suggest that the 2005 year class comprises the bulk of the crappie population which appears to be at an all-time high. Unfortunately however, so was the water…

Record high reservoir elevations persisted throughout the summer of 2011 hampering boat access for anglers as well as the department’s ability to re-capture enough crappie to obtain a valid population estimate. Despite crappie fishing being reported as “good” overall throughout the summer, (by shore fisherman and those able to get a boat on the reservoir) only 18 tags have been reported to date.

A creel survey had tentatively been planned for the winter of 2010-11, however environmental conditions warranted postponing. Dangerous ice conditions combine with heavy snowfall prevented anglers from doing much ice fishing at all on Pipestem Reservoir last winter. The creel has been re-scheduled for this winter (2011-12). A primary objective of this creel is to evaluate a 10 fish daily crappie limit placed on Pipestem Reservoir. For all other waters of the state, the crappie limit is 20 per day.

IOWA

Monitoring smallmouth bass fishery

A dam breached in Northeast Iowa during the summer of 2010 just above one of the best smallmouth bass fisheries in the state. The habitat and fish community components were extensively studied prior to the dam washing out and have provided good comparative data. The graph below shows the population estimates over the last 30 years. The smb population crashed after the dam broke. Habitat surveys have shown a significant change from rock to mud substrates. Walleye, one of the other game fish found in this area have not shown a dramatic decrease in numbers. This fishery will continue to be monitored.

MICHIGAN

On April 1, 2006, Michigan established a catch-and-immediate-release (CIR) season for black bass (largemouth bass and smallmouth bass) that occurs prior to the start of the possession season. We used a variety of data sources to evaluate whether this change in regulations had biologically important impacts on bass populations. Specifically, we evaluated whether CIR resulted in a decrease in recruitment of young fish, an increase in adult mortality, and an increase in nest failure. Information from the statewide Lake Status and Trends Program strongly suggests there has been no measurable change in recruitment of age 1 fish and no change in mortality of adult largemouth bass and smallmouth bass before and after the regulation change. Many other sources of information provide a large amount of circumstantial evidence that there have been no large changes in black bass populations that could be attributed to the new regulations. We conclude that there have been no catastrophic effects of CIR regulations on black bass populations in Michigan. This report also contains recommendations for additional research to support black bass management.

We figure that with our current limited information, we would only be able to detect large changes in bass populations, and we did not see any such large changes. We recommended looking at this topic again in about five years. By then there should be additional information (especially from our Lake and Stream Status and Trends Program), and more time for effects and trends to make themselves evident, if they were occurring, and so we would have a better chance of detecting moderate-to-small changes in bass populations.

The report recommends (among other things) collecting information on the timing of bass reproduction across the state. We don't have much quantitative information on this, but it is important for setting the timing of fishing regulations. The best information on timing of bass reproduction comes from Mark Ridgway's long-term study of a smallmouth bass population in Canada, and I used some of his data in my predictions of timing in Michigan lakes. Michigan should probably set up a study to monitor timing of bass (and other fish?) nesting in a set of lakes across the state. Such changes in timing of fish reproduction might be a noteworthy phenological signal of climate change.

Effects of spring angling, habitat features, and guarding male attributes on largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) nest survival and implications for fall young-of-year abundance

Black bass reproduction and factors affecting individual nest success have been studied extensively, but the effects of these factors at the population level are poorly known. We monitored largemouth bass nests in four southern Michigan lakes with varying fishing pressures during spring 2008 and 2009 and sampled for young-of-year (YOY) bass abundance and condition during the fall of 2009. We used Program MARK to determine the importance of factors affecting nest survival probabilities and whether a recent change in fishing regulations in Michigan (allowing a May catch-and-immediate release [CIR] season) affected nest survival. Differences in survival among lakes and between stages of offspring development varied between years, but between-year differences may have been due to sample size and method changes. Nest survival was higher during the CIR season than during the subsequent harvest season for both years. Nest survival probability estimates for 5- or 6-day intervals ranged 14-73% among years, lakes, fishing seasons, and stages of development. Differences in nest survival among lakes and between seasons and stages indicated the importance of the timing and development of nests to the observed percent of nests that were successful in each lake. The high fishing pressure lakes during 2009 (the year for which we had more data and improved sampling methods) had higher nest survival probability estimates (during the CIR season only) than the low fishing pressure lakes and greater observed abundances of YOY in the fall. We hypothesized that among-lake differences in nest survival probabilities during the CIR season are reflective, in large part, of inherent differences among lakes in the productive capacity of their bass populations. The positive relationship between nest survival probabilities during the CIR season and general fishing pressure levels could reflect that bass anglers spend more time fishing in lakes with more productive bass populations. The seasonal difference in nest survival probabilities within lakes (higher survival during the CIR season) could reflect negative effects of intensified fishing hours and/or practices during the harvest season. Future research should explore this hypothesis. Finally, the outcome of the spring nesting season was strongly linked to fall recruitment during 2009, but the population-level effects of fishing on recruitment appeared complex. We suggest that the CIR season can remain, with continued monitoring of bass populations for long-term effects.

Chasing Pomoxis

For once, the weather guys got it right. Late last week, the extended forecast was calling for the best day this week, and the last good day to be Tuesday, when highs were supposed to get back up near 50 degrees. As such, I had put in for a half day at work, with thoughts of getting the boat out one last time on open water in January.

As it turned out, everything held together on the weather end of things - a rarity. I had already got my first bass of 2012 back on Sunday (1/08) during a miserably slow day (2 bites). Instead, I've been reading fishing reports about all these guys getting on pretty decent crappie bites during this cold water period. As such, I wanted to try and swing on a few of those for a change on this last voyage before ice-up.

Reports from a few hardy souls earlier in the day had ice at the ramp and covering over half the lake. Turned out to be mostly skim, so the guys that got there late morning were able to break through, forging a path for others. It wasn't until nearly 1PM when larger parts of the lake started opening up as the high blue skies and warming temps started to do their thing to the skim ice.

I finally rolled out of work and hit the ramp a bit after 3:30. Lots of open water by then, and still enough time for me and a good friend to get in a couple solid hours or so before dark. Air temps were a balmy 53 degrees at the time, and winds were light at 5-6 mph from the south. Barometer had recently started to fall, and high cirrus clouds could be seen on the horizon, the start of the next weather system that would/will ultimately put an end to this open water season.

Got tipped off to a good area with biters from another friend who was headed back home shortly after I got there, and was able to wrangle a few nice ones. These fish were coming out of 21' of water, and probably sitting darn near their wintering homes for the next couple months. Water temps were running 39.5, and vis. was decent. Turned out to be a nice couple hours on the water, and a good way to finally call it quits for the year (2010).

With any luck, we'll be looking at ice-out in about 2 months or so. Hopefully that time will just fly by, or at least seem a lot shorter than normal. Days are now lengthening by more than a minute a pop, and fishing shows fill the schedule over the next several weeks. I got to fish hard through the winter solstice period and into the New Year, so the tide has definitely already turned in the right direction.

The Tough Road of Crappie Biologists

Influence of a modified length and creel limit on the crappie population in a large Illinois reservoir
Mike Hooe -- Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Being a biologist isn't easy, especially when it comes to crappie anglers. One subject that constantly gets brought up is why we don't have a size limit on crappie. Seems like crappie anglers are always wanting bigger and better crappie fishing in their lakes. The simple answer is because it largely wouldn't work on most of our waters. Research and modeling suggest you need a population with good to above average growth combined with low natural mortality for them to work well. This is the exact criteria that both Ohio and Pennsylvania have adopted for their crappie programs. Indiana biologists have looked at the stats for a lot of our reservoirs, and to the best of my knowledge, only two bodies of water have been identified that fit the above scenario. Anglers think that you can simply slap a 10" size limit on a lake full of 6"-8" crappie and in a year or two, all those fish will have grown to 10" - WRONG. In many if not most cases, they'll stunt out and the population will be worse off than when you started.

Back on the original point. Biologists over in Illinois (Rend Lake) came up with a creative idea to improve crappie fishing for larger fish while stabilizing the cyclical nature of the population. They took their existing 25 fish limit and applied a tiered bag limit, such that you could only keep 5 of your 25 crappie >10", and the other 20 had to be <10". They later (2004) revised the over 10" component to 10 > 10", with the remaining 15 having to be under 10". This forced harvest of smaller fish while protecting for overharvest of larger fish. From a recent presentation on the results;

"The size structure of the crappie population improved noticeably following implementation of the regulation. Data from the fall 2002 trapnet survey showed a sharp rise in the percentage of the crappie population > 10 in and this increase has remained relatively stable for eight years post-implementation. Creel data also showed a dramatic increase in catch rates and harvest of crappie > 10 in."

Sounds like a win for crappie anglers. Some posters on fishing forums even pointed out that it is, at times, difficult to even get your 15 fish under 10". However, the majority of the posters complained that they didn't like the new tiered system, instead arguing that they would just prefer a simple 25 over 10" limit, which as was already mentioned, won't work on a majority of crappie lakes in our region. Some went so far as to call the regulation "stupid".

It just goes to show that there are many facets involved with setting regulations, not the least of which is angler opinion. In this case, even though the fishery probably wouldn't have improved, and maybe even gotten worse, anglers would rather have a simplified creel limit instead of a specialized regulation. Part of this likely stems from the nature of crappie fishermen, that being primarily a catch and harvest type endeavor. Surveys show that not many edible sized crappie get released by anglers. Unlike bass or muskie fishermen who have a very strong catch and release ethic, crappie anglers, along with bluegill and walleye anglers, are more geared toward harvest. As such, any regulations that negatively impact that ability to harvest are frequently met with criticism.

Wind, Waves and Crappie

Does any one know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
-The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

%o$-(@$%#^ wind! OK, so it wasn't quite as bad as the Superior storm that sunk the giant ore carrier, but 20-30 mph winds on an open lake are a major headache for a 16' jon boat and a 10hp motor.

Only get two days out of the week to fish, they turn out nice and sunny, but those damn winds and whitecaps, plus a bad direction to boot. Not fun in a little tin boat. Still, had no choice if I wanted to fish. Made the best of it and managed to catch quite a few fish, to the tune of 50-60 probably, though many were small (<9"). Most crappie are still scattered for us, but I couldn't even begin to think about sitting out in open water on some of my better areas. So did a little searching with the new H'bird, learned some new spots, and managed to keep busy with the action. Water temps down to about 62 degrees now, so the best is still to come. Mostly 1/16-oz tube jigs on 4-6# line - anywhere from 5'-15' of water around docks and submerged brush. Neighbor kept some of our crappie today, including a bonus channel cat.

 

Finding lots of good stuff, and lots of fish (small white specks) to catch with the new Humminbird SI unit.

Here's the neighbor's haul from our trip this weekend; 4 pounds of channel cat fillets and a bucket of nice crappie.

Largest crappie I've had in the boat all year, caught by my partner today.

SI Crappie

Got out for a bit last weekend to play more with the side imaging. Decided to chase crappie, and so spent some time looking at a few areas I sort of knew already. Wanted to see what things looked like with the SI.

One benefit I've learned pretty quickly about SI is the efficiency with which you can find stuff that should/could hold fish. Seeing as how most of our reservoirs are shallow flatland impoundments, I'm running the screen out about 60' on each side, giving me a 120'+ coverage path. If I was to run a series of paths looking over a new area, it would take roughtly 4-8 times more passes to be able to find what I can now do in 1 pass most times - very efficient.

Another benefit, actually two benefits, are:

1. Being able to tell pretty much exactly what you are looking at when you see something, i.e. a tree vs. a brushpile vs. a stump, etc. In 2d, I can make some pretty good assumptions because of my experience with electronics, and to a certain degree I didn't really care what it is I found, but with SI most times there is no question what it is you are looking at. This helps with deciding on best lure retrieve options.
2. Seeing exactly how something is situated in relation to you and your path of travel. For example, in the shot below you'll see a laydown I came across while scanning an old submerged pond. The cool part is that I could tell exactly which direction it was laying, and so when I dropped a buoy on it, I could immediately take up a position that allowed me to throw to the base of the laydown tree and work my jig parallel to the direction of the trunk and branch arms. This translates into less hangups and greater opportunities at fish. Usually it's a trial and error process of "touchy-feely", with the worst outcome being a snagged lure within the first few casts that disrupts the spot while you're trying to tease out the best lure retrieve angle relative to the cover. In this case, I whacked 50 crappie of this single spot and and never broke off a bait in the process.

Gauging Crappie Quality

One of the best things about bass tournaments, in my mind, is all the data you can capture relative to the size and numbers of bass for any given lake. A lot of times this data closely resembles the data captured by fisheries biologists in their surveys, but thanks to the Internet, you can have and assemble the tourney data so much more rapidly than waiting for report turnaround from the state agencies, which is often not until the following year.

Recently, a new statewide crappie tourney organization started here in the Hoosier state (Indiana Slab Masters), and needless to say, I was very anxious to see exactly what was going to get weighed in over the course of the year. One thing you'll find out is that crappie reports, much like bass reports, can easily be a bit embellished, especially when it comes to size of fish and numbers caught. While numbers weren't the main focus of this data capture (only a 7-fish limit), size is easily tracked via overall bag weight.

Basically, in a crappie tourney, you are allowed to weigh 7 crappie, and you can cull up your sack just like the bass guys do. Tournaments typically run 8 or 9 hours, any method of legal fishing is allowed (trolling, casting, live bait, etc.), and these are team events where 2 people are allowed per boat to combine their best 7 fish, and a state allowed maximum of 3 poles per person can be used at any given time. The tourneys in Indiana also had a minimum size limit of 9", so you could easily either blank or fall short of your limit if all you caught were mostly crappie <9" in length. 

The organization fished 8 tourneys on a wide range of centrally based reservoirs in 2011, including  Geist, Morse, Patoka, Monroe, Cataract, Raccoon, Salamonie, and Brookville. In total, they had 224 entrants weigh 772.48 lbs. of crappie, for an average bag of 3.45 lbs. Median weight bag was very similar, coming in at 3.72 lbs. They averaged 28 boats per tourney through the year, and nearly 100 lbs. of crappie (total weight) per event.

As you can see from the bar graph, if you class every bag weighed in 1-lb. increments, you'll see a typical bell curve type response. The majority of all sacks weighed for the year fell somewhere over 3-lbs. but under 5 lbs., fully 50% of all bags. If you wanted to break this down even further, to have a sack in the top 10 percent of all sacks weighed, it needed to weigh 5.36-lbs. Top 20 percent threshold was 4.89, 30 percent was 4.48, 40 percent was 4.10 and 50 percent was 3.76 lbs. Rounding out the bottom half, 60 percent was 3.43, 70 percent 2.93, 80 percent was 1.92, and the 90 percent mark was a blank. Actually, 11.6% of all anglers blanked across these events.

I was curious how my local lake would fare, so I made a quick trip out last weekend and threw my best 10 in the box, sorting down to the top 7 fish. My smallest was 9.75", and my largest for the day was just over 11". Most ran 10.5" or slightly better. I took them to the marina and had them weighed on their digital scales, and the final weight was 4.43 lbs. Using the table, this would put my catch in the top 32 percent of all catches. Not bad for just a couple hours. My neighbor and I actually had that total beat today, but didn't get a chance to weigh them before tossing them back.

Anyway, another fun way to play with fishing stats, and a new "game" if you choose to play out on the water. Keep and weigh your best 7 crappie next time and see where you fall. You'll get a good idea of the status of your lake and it's crappie relative to the data assembled from most of our popular reservoirs. You'll also see that just like all the 5lb. bass guys seem to catch, those pound or better crappies everyone seems to report are just as elusive when you have to produce them for the scales.

Love That Open Water Jigging

A mostly overcast sky with a threat of rain, practically no wind, and 90% of the pleasure boaters now off the lake had me sitting out in the open water today chasing these guys. Ended up with about 4 dozen today, including about 30 good "chunks". Baits were 1/16-oz. tube jigs on 6# NanoFil or 1/32-oz. jigs tipped with a minnow and fished on 4# NanoFil over isolated brushpiles and stumps in 10'-15' of water.

 

Graphing Summer Schoolers

Had a small window yesterday afternoon, a period where the Chevy update boat had left the lake and the reports were coming to an end, and then the tail end of the weigh-in when Jacob would finally hit the scales. Worked out to be about 5 hours. So I left work a bit early and hit the lake for a couple hours to chase crappie in between.

A good graph is invaluable this time of year for finding and fishing breaklines, submerged cover, and locating schools of fish. I only had to fish two areas in order to catch about 40 crappie, all on tube jigs tossed on 4# and 6# NanoFil line. The second spot had a thick school of fish that resulted in a bite about every other cast. When things finally slowed down and I had to leave to get back in time for weigh-in, I went to video the graph over the spot and the fish were gone. It was simply a timing bite where a big school of crappie had moved in on a point, fed and then moved on. Didn't have enough time to try and figure out where they went, so that will have to be a video for another day.